Duane Brown talks ankle surgery, NFL Network’s Top 100

Just two weeks after ankle surgery to repair a bone spur, Texans All-Pro left tackle Duane Brown is running, working out and planning to be at training camp at the end of July as expected.

Brown on Thursday described why he decided to have the surgery and how long the bone spurs had been bothering him.

“I felt it about two months ago, but it really didn’t bother me that much because it was kind of an annoying, irritating thing,” Brown said. “The last couple of days of OTAs it became an issue where it kind of affected the way I played and I couldn’t perform the way I wanted to. That’s when I decided to go ahead with the procedure. I just couldn’t really explode off of my right leg like I wanted to, trying to redirect and things like that.”

As far as Brown was concerned, there was really no downside to having the surgery when he did because of the short recovery time. As he sees it, the only negative is that it cut into his summer break.

“But I would probably have been working out anyway so not really an issue,” he said.

Brown said he was in a boot for only a few days after the surgery and was never on crutches. He can run; he can move on it. And while he says it’s still a little bit sore, he added that it hasn’t impacted his training.

The bone spur was something that developed over time and stemmed from other ankle problems Brown had.

“I’ve had a couple ankle sprains in my career in the last four or five years,” he said. “I guess my ankle just had an extra growth. My bone just had an extra growth that it built to protect itself. It was just an extra ball that was right on my joint.

“Every time I would bend where the joint usually goes smoothly, it was hitting that knot that was on my bone and it was really painful.”

More pleasantly this summer, Brown was named the No. 48 player on NFL Network’s top 100 players, a list voted on by other players.

“It was awesome,” Brown said. “That was a huge honor for me to be recognized by my peers as one of the top 100 players at any position. That’s a big deal for me considering where my career started and the progress that I made up to this point.”